The NYSC reform talk got me thinking about my own service year lessons

I was reading about the proposed NYSC changes and it brought back memories. My service year in 2010 was a defining period for me. I was posted to a small town in Adamawa, far from Enugu where I grew up. The first month was pure culture shock. I could not understand the local dialect, the food was different, and I missed my family terribly.

But something shifted during that six-week orientation camp. I remember sitting on the grass one evening, watching hundreds of corps members from all over Nigeria singing and dancing together. Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, all of us under one sky. It was the first time I truly felt what it means to be Nigerian. Not just a person from one tribe or one religion, but part of something bigger. That experience shaped how I see people to this day.

So when I hear people say NYSC is a waste of time or should be scrapped, I understand their frustration. The system has problems. But I also know that for many of us, it was where we learned to live with people who are not like us. Where we discovered that our differences are not threats but invitations to grow. I wonder how many young Nigerians today will get that same opportunity if the programme changes too much.